Weather Briefly Closes Bali – Lombok Ferry

Ferry Crossing Closed for Two Days Due to High Winds and Waves.

The Car Ferry Service between Padang Bai (Bali) and Lembar (Lombok) was closed for two days on February 3-4, 2004, due to high winds and waves.

The disruption in service commenced on the afternoon of Tuesday, February 3 and lasted until the morning of the following day.

Shortly after 6 p.m. on Tuesday, the Car/Passenger Ferry Perdana Nusantara was forced to turn back to Lembar Harbor due to high winds and waves. Shortly thereafter, when another ship, the Wicitra Dharma was also forced to return to Lombok at 19:30 hours, the Port Master for Lembar immediately declared the port closed until 6 a.m. the following morning.

On Wednesday morning weather conditions improved sufficiently allowing the resumption of normal service and the deployment of several extra departures to handle the backlog in cars and passengers on both sides of the straits caused by the temporary shutdown of service.